2/7/16 Report - Florida Laws and Proposed Legislation. Citizen Archaeology Permit. Your Attention and Action Is Needed.

Written by the TreasureGuide for the exclusive use of treasurebeachesreport.blogspot.com.

Before I get started on my main topic today, here is look at a couple of the Treasure Coast beaches.

Frederick Douglas and John Brooks Beaches Saturday Morning.

The wind has changed direction.  The swells are from the east.  I didn't seen anything but very small cuts and am not expecting any real good hunting in the next few days.  We'll be having a west wind until Monday afternoon.

I wish that the strong north wind would have continued.
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Gosports1 emailed me a link to something you need to know about.  The Florida Legislation is working on a bill that will provide for a citizen archaeology permit.

Here is link to a Forbes article that will give you some background.  The of the article is Florida Archaeologists Condemn Proposed Citizen Archaeology Permit.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/kristinakillgrove/2016/01/13/florida-archaeologists-condemn-proposed-citizen-archaeology-permit/#d2af5f558fc6

I suggest you read that article carefully.  It will give you some good information.

Below is a link to the proposed new wording for House Bill 803 and Senate Bill 1054.

http://flsenate.gov/Session/Bill/2016/0803/BillText/c1/PDF

I'll post some of the important proposed changes immediately below.  (Underlined words are proposed additions to the existing legislation and stricken words are to be deleted.  The blue high-lighted section is a mistake.)

I am not going to comment on this yet.  For one thing, I want to study it more and think about the likely intended and unintended consequences.  Secondly, I'd like to get your comments before giving mine.  Send them to TreasureGuide@comcast.net.

Here is a link that provides the relevant existing laws.

http://www.leg.state.fl.us/statutes/index.cfm?App_mode=Display_Statute&URL=0200-0299/0267/0267.html

And if you want to contact your Florida representatives, you can get the email addresses at this FMDAC web site.

http://www.fmdac.org/breaking-news.html

I'm going to leave it at that for now even though  I could probably write a thousand pages about this.  I plan to post my thoughts some time in the future after you have a chance look into it and become more informed.

The main force behind these proposals seems to be the Tri State Archaeological Society.  You can google that if you wish.

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Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net